Disney and OpenAI Strike Deal Bringing 200+ Characters to Sora

The Walt Disney Company has agreed to license more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters to OpenAI for use in Sora, the company's video generation tool, according to the announcement. The deal allows fans to create short videos featuring the entertainment giant's most valuable intellectual property.

The scale of the character list is the story's headline number. More than 200 characters from across Disney's four flagship franchises will be available inside Sora for what the companies describe as fan-inspired short videos. That turns some of the most closely guarded IP in entertainment into material that users can prompt into motion — a shift for a studio historically known for aggressive protection of its characters.

The agreement also formalizes Disney's adoption of OpenAI's tools across the business. Disney will deploy ChatGPT Enterprise and the OpenAI API company-wide, extending the relationship beyond consumer video generation and into internal operations.

Both companies framed the deal around responsible AI use in entertainment. The announcement emphasizes responsible AI as a pillar of the partnership — language that reflects the industry's ongoing negotiations over how generative models should be allowed to train on, and reproduce, copyrighted characters and stories.

The stakes for the broader market are significant. Licensing negotiations between AI developers and rights holders have become a central fault line in the generative AI industry, with lawsuits, opt-out demands and content deals competing to set the norms. A deal of this profile — the largest entertainment company partnering with the highest-profile AI lab on character licensing — signals that negotiated licensing, rather than pure legal confrontation, is becoming a viable path for Hollywood IP meeting generative video.

For OpenAI, the agreement gives Sora something video models have largely lacked: explicit, legal access to characters audiences actually want to see. For Disney, it establishes a controlled channel for fan creativity that runs through an approved platform, rather than through unauthorized generations on competing tools.

The companies did not detail revenue terms, exclusivity conditions, or the specific rollout timeline for the characters inside Sora. How Disney's IP performs inside Sora — and how tightly usage is policed — will likely shape whether other rights holders follow with similar licensing arrangements.